1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus, an image pickup apparatus for capturing, storing, recording, and reproducing a still image or a moving image, a control method for the image pickup apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in multi-function high-performance digital cameras, there have been increasing demands for easy selection of functions desired by users with a few operations.
In compact digital cameras with a limited number of operating members, however, each of the operating members needs to be assigned more than one function or activity. If a plurality of functions or activities are assigned to a single operating member, the functions of the operating member are changed many times, thus increasing the number of operations to be performed by a user and increasing the complexity of the operations.
It is desirable that the number of operating members be reduced in order to increase the compactness. However, the multi-function high-performance design with a reduced number of operating members can lead to a problem of increasing the number of operations to be performed by a user.
Various techniques have been proposed to solve this problem. One known technique is to prohibit a user from operating a certain range of function parameters so that only a function needed by a photographer can be selectively set.
In this technique, however, whenever a user desires to change the selectable range of parameters, the user needs to change the parameters, which is inconvenient for the user. In this case, it is desirable that some settings that are frequently used by the user be customized and stored.
Another known technique is to switch between a mode for displaying an image on a liquid crystal panel disposed on a rear side of a digital camera and a mode for displaying an image in a viewfinder of the digital camera. For example, a technique for performing display control so as to prevent the display of information from being changed on the viewfinder is disclosed.
In a case where there is a plurality of display modes, however, the display mode changing operation itself is time consuming. For example, a digital camera has four display modes, numbered 1 to 4, and the modes are changed in the order of the mode 1, the mode 2, the mode 3, the mode 4, the mode 1, . . . , each time a button is pressed. In order to change from the mode 2 to the mode 1, the button is pressed three times. Therefore, as the number of display modes increases, the number of operations required for a user to change the modes also increases, resulting in increased complexity.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a display control apparatus, an image pickup apparatus for capturing, storing, recording, and reproducing a still image or a moving image, a control method for the image pickup apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a program which solves the aforementioned conventional problems.